Find Homes for Sale in La Crescenta CA Today

La Crescenta

La Crescenta is an unincorporated, residential community offering a quiet lifestyle and beautiful views of the San Gabriel Mountains. The city of La Crescenta is nestled amongst the Crescenta Valley communities of La Cañada Flintridge, Montrose, Sparr Heights, Verdugo City and North Glendale, each encompassing its own dynamic character and charm. The area’s pleasant setting and ideal climate coupled with the conveniences of nearby freeways and major cities make it an attractive site for young professionals, families and a diverse array of businesses. Many of its residents are drawn to La Crescenta for its “Blue Ribbon” and “California Distinguished” awarded schools.

The Crescenta Valley, often called the “Balcony of Southern California”, has developed into a prosperous California region home to excellent educational opportunities, acclaimed medical offerings, several beautiful parks, and the Crescenta Valley Arts Council, which hosts such events as Shakespeare in the Park, and the Valley Film Festival during the summer.

HISTORY

The land now known as Crescenta Valley was originally inhabited by Gabrieleno Indians and later settled by Don Jose Maria Verdugo, after whom the nearby mountains are named. In 1784, Verdugo was granted 36,000 acres by the Spanish Crown, uprooting many Tongva Indians (who were later called Gabrielenos by the Spanish Missionaries). He eventually went bankrupt, and the homeless bandits and thieves who roamed the foothills, Gabrieleno Indians among them, became known as “verdugos”. In the early 1880s Dr. Benjamin Briggs, a physician from Crawfordsville, Ind., made a worldwide search for an ideal climate and ultimately found his way to Southern California. He named the town after three crescents or mountain peaks (creciente is Spanish for crescent) he saw while looking out his window one day. It had been his desire to devote himself to horticultural pursuits and the establishment of a health resort, but Briggs did not live to carry out all his plans. However, many people interested in his ambitions became attracted to the area. Health workers and physicians soon established clinics. Sanitariums for asthmatics and other facilities for the sick were built.

As Los Angeles grew in the ’20s, the health sanitariums and homesteaders gave way to orchards, vineyards and resort homes. Nature punctuated the doldrums of the ’30s with a massive flash flood that swept through the valley just after midnight on New Years Day of 1934, killing 40 people and leaving hundreds homeless. After the ’40s, the Crescenta Valley began to enter mainsteam suburbia, farms giving way to tract homes. This process was finalized in the early ’70s by the opening of the 210 Freeway, weaving the Crescenta Valley firmly into the fabric of Greater Los Angeles.